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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Figuring Feminism

I'm continually surprised how many people shy away from the term "feminist." Many men think that you have to be a
woman to be a feminist. And an
alarming number of women are hung up on the bewildering notion that femininity
precludes feminism. Others believe
that to be a feminist you must hate men, or at least believe that they are
inferior to women. Still others
find the term to be archaic, and that now that women have the right to vote and
to file for divorce, that the word has no practical application anymore.

image from alicepaul.org

Alice Paul: Feminist

After one American History course, I decided I was a
feminist. I’d read the stories of
women at the turn of the century fighting for equal rights and was inspired by
them. I’d immersed myself in the
debate between tradition and equality and which was “better” for women as a
population. I couldn’t have fathomed
how far from complete my knowledge of modern feminism was, but I had been
undeniably inspired by these feminist historical figures, so surely I was a
feminist as well?When it came time to choose my classes this
semester, I wanted to make sure I had enough hours that I could drop any course
if things started to go downhill.
I needed three more hours.
I needed a humanities course.
Enter Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies, stage left.As long as I’m holding the honesty stick, I never
considered Women’s Studies a “real” major. I’m a computer science student (as most of you know), following,
despite my valiant efforts, in my mother’s footsteps. And when family and friends would ask me what classes I was
taking, Gender Studies was always accompanied by the rider, “I know, but I
needed an elective.”It wasn’t that I didn’t expect to enjoy the
course. If that had been the case,
I would have picked something different.
I thought I would just quietly show up every week, enjoy, learn, get a
good grade, and get on with college.
But I soon realized that there was no way to leave the class in the
classroom return to the (metaphorically) quiet existence I’d been leading. This information was not only important
but also urgent. I could no longer
sit idly by while someone said “man up” to someone else, or while the word
“girly” got tossed around like an insult.
These people needed to have their eyes opened! They needed to be made to realize the implications of the
things they were saying! Basically, I’d been bit.

image from Wikipedia

I spend about as much time cavorting with fictional
characters as I do with real people, so the context in which most of this
information really hit home for me was media representations of gender. For example, Katniss Everdeen (from the
Hunger Games) is cited again and again as a strong female protagonist and role
model for young women (especially when contrasted with Twilight’s Bella Swan,
but if any undead horse has been beaten enough, it’s that one). But I was (like others) frustrated by the presence of
a love triangle in the story. I
thought, Couldn’t we have just one story where the heroine stands on her own
without being dragged down by romantic tension? Don’t we see all sorts of stories where the male hero saves
the day without love getting in the way?Then I realized that “save the world, get the girl”
was easily just as common a trope for male protagonists. So the question I’d been missing
was: Why does a romantic subplot
weaken a female protagonist, while it doesn’t have the same effect on a male
hero? If the men and women in
fiction were truly equal, there wouldn’t be a difference, but we as a culture
are still having trouble separating women from the dependent or inferior role
in a relationship. So when we see
a strong woman with a strong man, we groan and roll our eyes and say “not again.”If we change gears dramatically and look at the show
America’s Next Top Model (yes, okay?
I watch it sometimes.
Usually the photo shoots and runway shows outweigh Tyra’s vacuous
monologues), we find a gold mine of media messages relating to body image. And while the show makes an effort to include
women of various races and body types, it takes the liberty of labeling “plus
size” models as “real women” (or “fiercely real” as I recall the exact phrasing
in one season). Unfortunately, this trend is not limited to inane
avenues as Top Model. “Large” or
“curvy” women being are repeatedly labeled as “real” in an effort to combat the
fad of girls starving themselves in pursuit of beauty. This is taking one step forward and two
steps back. The day we realize
that beauty is subjective and that no body type is more “real” than any other
will be a beautiful day indeed.A problem a lot of people have with feminism is that
it flies in the face of chivalry.
I would argue that it is, in fact, chivalry that flies in the face of
feminism. And many who feel that
chivalry is simply courtesy are misrepresenting the two as synonyms. They are not. The World English Dictionary defines “chivalry” in this way:

the
combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, esp courage, honour,
justice, and a readiness to help the weak

courteous behaviour, esp towards women

This draws a troubling parallel between
women and weakness. Why can’t we
hold the door open for our fellow human beings? Why does it have to be a gendered act at all?I saw this picture a while ago on Facebook:

The response looked something like this:

At first I was outraged. It took a long time, but I eventually realized that this rebuttal is entirely fair. If women are going to hold men to an archaic standard, then those men have the right to remind those women what the equivalent standard is. The bottom line is that we should hold car doors for people and we should make sandwiches for people, but not because we're expected to because of our gender. Just because it's a nice thing to do.

I've learned that trying to define feminism is like trying to solve a problem like Maria. You kind of just have to stand back and let it do its thing. Because beyond "gender equality," the goals of feminism are fractured and inconsistent. Because feminism isn't a wave; it's a whirlpool.

Recently, I was again asked about my courses this semester. Here it was—the chance to redeem myself. I listed my classes, finished with Gender Studies, and I left off the disclaimer. But my inquisitor scoffed. "Let me help you," he said with an dramatic roll of his eyes. "'Men are bad.' There. Done." The rest of the dinner table looked at him fearfully, knowing that he did not realize what he'd stepped in. I smiled. I smiled because I knew that for a long time there would be people like him that were confused. I smiled and I explained to him how he was mistaken.

The sigh of relief from everyone else at the table was audible. It was about that time that a third person jumped into the conversation with a wildly sexist accusation and things descended into chaos and anarchy. What can I say? I get worked up. But the bottom line is this: if you believe that women are not inferior to men, you are a feminist by definition. Whether or not you decide to take up the banner and solve the rest of the world's ignorance is up to you. But it's one of those things that's difficult to un-know.As corny as it sounds to say that my eyes were opened by my Gender Studies class, there's truth to it. And even as my understanding of feminism continues to grow, perhaps the greatest understanding is that I can never know all of it. It's moving too fast. Growing too quickly. And it's too late to stop it now. It's a like a horrific genetic experiment that's escaped the lab and is mowing down every sexist moron in its wake. But... you know... a good horrific genetic experiment... You get the idea.

"Feminism" continues to be an inflammatory, divisive, controversial word. Curiously, "equality" doesn't have nearly the capacity for starting arguments that "feminism" does. This proves that the issue is largely one of vocabulary, not bigotry. This is our first hurdle as a society. We need not simply to leap over it as individuals, but pick it up and remove it from the track so that no one trips over it behind us.

5 comments:

How introspective and topical. Nicely written, too. "Why is it the man that is supposed to rise when a woman enters a room or comes to or leaves the table, and never the woman? Is it too inconvenient? Is she pinned to the chair, as her hat is pinned to her head?" (W52 4/15 p 255 Questions from Readers)

Very well written, and very well thought out. I am glad to hear about this course. Feminism (and really gender studies) is one of those things you know? It's difficult to approach without bias, and it is so ingrained in people's culture that a truly equal world can seem out of reach. I think people's expectations alter their thoughts and cause them to feel weird when people of the opposite gender are just as strange and weird as they are. It's hard to view others as people as well. I'm glad i found this. PS: Is it weird that I found your blog tonight, while sleep deprived, bored and looking for fun things to do on the interwebs?